In rehearsal for New UK Musicals: Live in Concert at The Other Palace: [Clockwise] Michael Rouse, Gemma Sutton, Tyrone Huntley, and Anoushka Lucas. Pictures: Craig Glenday
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
In the UK, new musical theatre writing, and particularly new British writing, is something of a Cinderella – it tends to get overlooked. With the West End filled with established long-runners and an endless cycle of jukebox musicals, there are simply not enough opportunities for new writers to showcase their work and reach a wide audience. It’s difficult enough to achieve Off-West End, let alone make it down Shaftesbury Avenue, despite an embarrassment of homegrown talents all desperate to air their work.
So it was a much-needed breath of fresh air that blew through The Other Palace this week with a live outing of material from the catalogue of New UK Musicals.
This online hub for composers and lyricists – see www.newukmusicals.co.uk – was the brainchild of New Zealand-born Darren Clark, himself a composer and lyricist acclaimed for shows such as The Wicker Husband, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and These Trees are Made of Blood. Clark’s idea, conceived shortly before the theatre world was blacked out by the Covid-19 pandemic and launched during the first lockdown, was to establish a publicly accessible catalogue of sheet music, audio and video recordings and backing tracks created by the writers of new British musicals.
The site – which offers writers 100% of the income from downloaded sheet music and backing tracks – has attracted an impressive line-up of talent. Among those to have uploaded their songs are the likes of Finn Anderson, Tim Sutton, Marc Folan and Vikki Stone, and partnerships such as Webborn and Finn, Edis & Howard, Noisemaker and Stiles and Drewe.
Under the auspices of New UK Musicals, Clark also acts as a talent scout for performers and organises singing competitions that invite wannabe stars to show off their talents by performing one of the catalogue songs.
The inevitable result of all these efforts was New UK Musicals: Live in Concert, curated by Clark and buddy Adam Lenson. The one-night-only gig was a chance for some of these all-too-unsung songs to be performed by the winners of the singing contests, thus killing two birds with one stone.
The Sing Space
Okay, make that three birds: also invited to make their public debut at this one-off concert was The Sing Space musical choir – recently formed by vocal coach Rachel Lynes.
And rounding off the line-up was a selection of established musical theatre performers: Tyrone Huntley, Anoushka Lucas, Michael Rouse and Gemma Sutton.
Musical support was provided in the shape of a tight four-piece band led by Oli Rew from the keyboard, with Jordi on guitars, Edin on bass and James on drums (sadly no surnames given in the programme). Having a band was a lovely decision, helping to elevate the show beyond what might’ve been merely a piano bar gig. And with some creative lighting effects to add yet more colour, the result was a joyous celebration of the best of British new writing and performing talents, and one that will hopefully be the first of many such showcases from this team.
Opening the show was Michael Rouse with ‘Don’t Look Down’ from Superhero. This one-man musical by Richard Hughes and Joseph Finlay premiered at the Southwark Theatre in 2017 with Rouse in the role of Colin, a divorced Dad hounded by the Child Support Agency. In his reprise of the show’s award-winning song (‘Down Look Down’ took home the Stiles and Drewe Best New Song prize in 2016), Rouse, ill-fittingly dressed as Batman’s sidekick Robin, took us on a tragi-comic rollercoaster ride as his “father for justice” scaled the Elizabeth Tower.
After some introductory chat from Clark, a couple of the talent competition winners were invited on to the stage. First up was the 2020 overall winner, Rosalind Ford, with an elegant performance of the beautifully optimistic ‘Colour in my Cheeks’ from composer-lyricist Tim Connor’s Heart of Winter. This was followed by the 2020 Audience Award winner Kelly Glyptis, who delivered a gloriously over-the-top ‘Off With Their Heads’ from Alice in Winterland. An audience favourite, this demonic waltz by the outrageously talented Eamonn O’Dwyer – another writer of both music and lyrics – saw Glyptis’ Queen of Hearts revel in the decapitation of her unruly subjects. And opting up at the end not once but twice!
West End star Gemma Sutton was next, lending her beautiful voice to ‘White Elephant Stall’ by Rebecca Applin and Sue Pearse. This poignant number, from The 45th Marvellous Chatterley Village Fete, recalls a daughter’s childhood memory of her terminally ill mother selling her belongings, and was achingly rendered by Sutton. It was also good to see female writers represented, as hiring female creatives appears to still be a challenge for theatre producers.
Two more competition winners performed next. Joanna Clarke (2021’s outright winner) gave a characterful rendition of the jaunty folk-inspired ‘Ride’ by Freya Catrin and Jack Williams, from their show of the same name – interestingly, about the impact of the bicycle on women’s independence in the 1890s. (See, this is why we need to encourage new musicals, to explore topics that other more established shows simply won’t touch!) And Audience Winner Catherine Gregory performed ‘Whisper it to Me’ from Alex James Ellison’s much acclaimed Fiver. What both of these numbers highlighted was that, even without the context of their shows, a well-written song performed by a talented singer can still be a very rewarding experience. If you know the show, all the better, but it’s not essential…
Part one ended on a high with Tyrone Huntley singing ‘Edge of the World’, written by the musical director and composer Tim Sutton for Victory. An upbeat number with a Caribbean lilt, it’s sung with bright-eyed optimism by a Trinidadian teen on the brink of leaving his homeland for Europe, oblivious to the ravages of the Great War. It seemed weirdly apposite, if bitter-sweet, given the news agenda of late.
Dundee-born Finn Anderson, whose song ‘Change of Plan’ opened the second half, has been on an interstellar journey of late, thanks to the phenomenal success of his show Islander. A poster boy for new musical theatre, Anderson has shown that there is an appetite for intelligent new work here and abroad, with Islander recently making its way from Mull to Off-Broadway via Southwark. His song choice for the showcase, from the musical A Mother’s Song, was given star treatment by the singer-songwriter Anoushka Lucas, whose unique voice suited this song perfectly.
The next four numbers were all in the safe hands of the New UK Musicals winners. The 2021 student winner Lucy Smith was up first with ‘Imagine’ from the musical adaptation of Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle by Teresa Howard and Steven Edis. A dreamy number full of teenage angst and longing, it showed off Smith’s clear soprano tone and served her well as the perfect audition piece should any producer care to revive this 2017 show.
Rosalind Ford returned to sing Gus Gowland’s comedy ballad ‘The Girl Next Door’, painting a delightful picture of a woman obsessed with her new neighbour. As Clark described in his introduction to the song, Gowland is one of the hardest working composers in the UK (and now a doctor! Where does he find the time?!) and this song demonstrated his mastery of the form, treating the number like a one-act play.
Elliot Burges, 13-year-old winner of the 2021 Junior Category, chose to sing Darren Clark’s ‘I’ll Supply the Withy’ from his acclaimed The Wicker Husband, with Clark himself at the guitar. Bruges showed great professionalism in handling a snafu at the start when Clark couldn’t find his chair before delivering an assured and confident performance. A talent in the making, Burges earned the warmest applause of the night.
Joanna Clarke returned to the stage for ‘It’s Been a Year’ from Lift by Craig Adams – a show that was recently revived at the Southwark Playhouse. “These songs deserve to be heard in audition rooms and concerts and cabaret and showers throughout the country,” said Clark in his introduction to the number. “That’s the way we get the work on – if people hear the work and know about the quality, then producers will start commissioning these incredible writers. They know how to deliver but it’s about getting it on stage.” Adams is one such success story, with his musical Lift, written with Ian Watson and supported by Perfect Pitch, bubbling away since the 1990s and becoming something of a cult hit after its London premiere in 2013. ‘It’s Been a Year’ was an inspired choice for this showcase, not only because it has been a hell of a year but because it illustrates the success that can be had with new writing.
Finally, to end the show, a 25-strong choir from The Sing Space filled the stage to perform a spine-tingling arrangement of ‘Time’ from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by Clark and collaborator Jethro Compton. The chorale – in the spirit of Sondheim’s ‘Sunday’ and Bernstein’s ‘Make our Garden Grow’ – was a powerful close to the proceedings, and bravo to the choir, who had only met in person for the first time that evening.
So, congratulations and thanks to Clark and Lenson – the Prince Charmings of new musical theatre writing?! – for a wonderful night out and also for striving to make a difference. Their passion for new work, combined with their tireless efforts to support their fellow writers, is inspiring, and I hope that we see this event become a regular fixture in the musical theatre calendar. But more so I hope that up and coming performers will see the value in adding new work to their repertoire, and that audiences will appreciate the quality of the work out there and give it their support. We need more than just the Southwark Playhouses and Watermill Theatres of this world to champion new writing. What showcases like this prove is that the talent is here, willing and able – they just need more opportunities to have their work staged. The impetus for this starts with us, the audience, so we need to do our bit by supporting these talented writers whenever the opportunity arises.
Craig Glenday
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